Imphal-based media are flooded with Meiteis’ side of the story regarding the ongoing carnage in Manipur. Internet shutdown has little impact in Imphal as Meitei’s social media handles including facebook pages have regular update/upload of things happening in Manipur. It is unimaginable how much efforts are given to blame the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo tribal for the violence and demonise them as evidence from the causal glance of media reports tickling out from Imphal.
Government machineries and officials have been used to speak up for the CM, who, by all measurements miserably fails. Still, press briefing by CM, Ministers and security adviser only echoed the Meitei version of any incident relating to the present violence. Valley journalists and journalism lost ethics. They are too carried away by emotions, the greatest enemy of journalism. And they dance according to the tune of Biren. Their unprofessionalism hurts people at the receiving end. The media and loyal CSOs pampered him and glorified his sectarian, divisive and partisan politics without foreseeing the probable outcome.
The role of the Security Adviser himself, who also regularly briefs media, is doubtful. He is not supposed to be remote-controlled by any one. The Security Adviser is expected to uphold the prestige and status of Centre Government than destroying the image of the Centre Government by obedient submission to the dictate of someone. He should avoid presenting just one side of the story in order to gain the trust of all sections instead of vitiating the already charged up atmosphere. It is an undeniable fact that N. Biren Singh one-sidedly works for the Meiteis and he sidelines the tribal people openly with all his sinister designs and plans which are now openly exposed worldwide. If both sides of the story from Meitei and tribal people are not proportionately heard and analyzed or balanced, more fuel will only be added to the already burning fire.
It is feared that this piece too may not find a space it deserves because Manipur Government and journalism in valley of Manipur is now being infested by yellow journalism with extreme pro-Meitei tendency. However, the milieu and settings leading to the present turmoil needs to be told.
Political conspiracy, non-indigenous issue, poppy plantation, reserved forest, SoO groups and whatnots are attributed by all valley based organizations for the violence that wracked the state. The valley based fascist organizations are fully supported, financed and sinisterly guided by N. Biren Singh. Unfortunately, none of them have the audacity to tell the truth for its sake because they are all remote-controlled by N. Biren Singh. Rather, Meitei are ready up to defend what is done by N Biren Singh and his government. In short, all valley CSOs, media and elected representatives have turned out to be the obedient, loyal spokesmen of N Biren Singh who all speak out according to the dictate of an incompetent N. Biren Singh. Nobody bothers to dig the deep fault lines and mistrust between the tribal groups and the government which have existed, needing just a spark to start the fire.
Manipur is a diverse state with many widely divergent cultures and a feast of viewpoint. The failure to comprehend or accept this fact is the root of all troubles. In fact, Pandora box for the ongoing ethnic tension was created by N. Biren Singh and he also opened it along with his puppet fascist organizations such as, Meitei Leepun, Arambai Tengol, Haomee Federation etc.
Contrary to chief minister N Biren’s relentless claims that the hill-valley divides have been plugged, he is one factor fuelling the mutual prejudice since day one of his chief ministership and his bias role can be seen even now. The present situation is a sum total of his intolerance, bigotry, radicalism, chauvinism, fascist attitude and ethno-centric politics combined. He is a tyrant who openly practices anarchy. He heralded the politics of division and polarisation. His policy to alienate and antagonize the Kuki-Zomi tribal group and his dislike for them was evident in his every move, speech, gesture and action. It was obvious that his unpopularity among the Kuki-Zomi tribal community was only heightened. He should evaluate himself to understand his position why public of Lamka did not allow him to step in their district? He should blame himself for all his misdeeds and wrongs he unceasingly committed against the Kuki-Zomi people since he took over as the Chief Minister. He should not aspire to be Chief Minister to divide Manipur but the negative works which he did can no longer be reformed. The reason being, Manipur is already divided and Kuki-Zomi people can no longer share space with Meiteis.
In his election campaign in 2022 at Lamka (Churachandpur is imposed name of the Meitei), Union Home Minister Amit Shah conveyed the BJP Government’s wishes to end Kuki-Zomi insurgency by bringing a solution to their problems within the next five years. N Biren Singh was also present at that election meeting. In response to the promise of Amit Shah, the Kuki-Zomi voters gave five BJP MLAs and four others from other parties who support the BJP in Manipur. Biren was reinstated as the CM of Manipur.
Then, the inevitable happened. He had formulated a ‘final plan’ before Amit Shah or the Centre does. Biren did all he could to demonise the Kuki-Zomi-Mizos, give them bad names, made provocative remarks and actions, spared no efforts to portray them as criminal tribes and subdue them using psychological warfare. All these orchestrated efforts were done to derail the talks between the Centre and the Kuki-Zomi armed groups under Suspension of Operation (SoO). He and his cohorts showed their open dislikes to the Kuki-Zomi community with ‘impunity.’ He uses whatever apparatuses at his disposal to achieve his ‘goal.’
Biren and his sidekicks (including the Meitei media) even resorted to anti-Kuki tribal rhetoric and narratives by loosely giving unsavory yet unproven tags like ‘illegal immigrants,’ ‘foreigners,’ ‘poppy planters,’ ‘forest encroachers,’ ‘drug dealers’ and even ‘narco-terrorist,’ etc to the Kukis in their persistent efforts to ruin the talks between the Kuki-Zomi groups and the Centre on one side and to grab their (Kuki-Zomis’) land on the other hand. As was evident from recent happenings, Biren directly and openly blames the SoO groups for any of his misadventure on tribal land and rights issues. He did all these things in his attempt to precede his political boss, Amit Shah. It is evident that Kuki-Chin people already inhabited their ancestral land many centuries before the enactment of Forest Act by British colonial rulers. Restless and impatient, N. Biren Singh violated all norms, procedures and rules in his attempt to surrender and introduce certain forest regulations in the Hill Areas of Manipur and he put himself in troubles which surround him now.
Besides, Biren’s frantic attempt to undermine the sentiments of the Kuki-Zomi tribals by showing utmost disregard to their history and historical positions did not auger well with them. Distortion of history to suit the Meiteis interest such as Chivu park etc did not go down well with them. All these are fabricated history which had really not happened. About 500 Meitei soldiers, commanded by Major General Nuthall were stationed in Chivu to check the movement of the Sukte and Kamhow to help the Lusei chiefs. In fact, Chivu was about 300 kilometres distance from Mizoram. However, Meiteis fabricated history and claimed that Chandrakirti defeated 112 Lusei chiefs because they had to travel more than 200 kilometres to reach Lushai territory. In such away, Chandrakirti Park was constructed at Chivu on the basis of false and fabricated history of the Meiteis under the leadership of a communal CM. The sentiment of the Kuki-Zomi people was already hurt to the maximum because of this fabricated history and construction of Meitei’s king park in Kuki-Zomi territory.
Biren had misread or perhaps he is ill-informed about the situation in Manipur over the past six years. Kuki-Zomi people have yearned to end the decades-old insurgency problem. The KNO and UPF had signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre and State government with the hope to solve their problem ‘without effecting Manipur territorial integrity.’ However, it is clear now why there was stiff opposition to settlement of SoO groups ‘within the territorial ambit of Manipur.’
While the expectation within the Kuki-Zomi people was that they would be free from insurgency, Biren acted otherwise to embolden the tribal group to demand more than what was expected. The exodus of Kuki-Zomi people from Imphal valley (most of them with life-time ordeals) completed the process of physical separation from the Meiteis. Only time can tell if these two warring communities would share space and live together again. In all likelihood, the answer is an emphatic No.
Meiteis supremacy and to sustain their hegemony is too dear to Biren and his flocks of puppet organizations that they would leave no stone unturned to achieve it. To oppose any demand by the tribals including Constitutional safeguards such as Sixth Schedule or Article 371(C) on the other hand and avail all opportunities like SC, OBC and now ST and to grab tribal land is the mantra for them. Therefore, Kuki-Chin people have no other alternative but to seek permanent separation from the Meitei.
At the same time, the Kuki-Zomi tribals’ distaste and disdain for N. Biren grew manifold. His hatred for the Kuki-Zomi people crossed the tolerable limits and it manifested, rather culminated when an open gym was ransacked by irritated mob a night before his scheduled inauguration in Lamka (Churachandpur) in April. As a public figure as big as a CM, he should have reserved at least a little room to accommodate criticism or suggestion. But the case here is not. He was overwhelmed by his emotions and showed impatience for vengeance. He himself is very active in social media but it is foolish to know that he cannot tolerate even mild criticism, so, he resorted to engaging police force and law courts even in mild criticism. So, a person who cannot digest criticism is not fit to be a leader in democratic system. Let N. Biren Singh evaluate himself if he is fit to be a leader in a democratic, civilised world.
For Biren, introspection of his words and actions was a NO. Shamed and feeling dejected and defeated after the Lamka incident where the gym he was scheduled to inaugurate was burned down by angry mobs, he instigated another mob and of course some radical groups (raised and patronized by people in power including himself) in the valley to counter the incident and tribals’ reaction.
For instance, the night before tribal solidarity rally in the hill area, a mob gathered at Moirang, a Meitei dominated town on the way to Churachandpur from Imphal, and held a torch rally to register their protest against the unsavoury words used against N. Biren by protesters in Lamka (Churachandpur) a few days back. The rallyists even threatened to impose bandh along Churachandpur-Imphal road if the persons using ‘unpleasant’ words against N.Biren Singh do not apologise. This rally got the backings of a local elected leader and radical elements loyal to him.
In his intolerance to critics, he gagged sane opinions about governance. Enlightening piece about governance in state newspapers were not to be found, as if they are being censored. Democracy is dead in Manipur since six years back. Instances are there where commentators on N Biren’s facebook page are arrested by police at the level of inspector or sub-inspector bypassing police hierarchy. The media too curry favour with the CM. Journalism and journalistic ethics in lost in Manipur valley. Their writings and thinking are prejudiced.
The state government with N. Biren Singh and titular king of Manipur at the helm entirely rejects a set hierarchy. There are evidences galore that traditional forms of government and institutions are curtailed. No CSOs or media dared to raise such issue and instead their focus was more on divisive agenda so as to keep the enmity and hatred simmering.
THE MERCHANTS OF DEATH: Keen observers will certainly notice how N Biren Singh started his political career. It was at the height of the anti-‘Indo-Naga’ ceasefire movement that he joined the electoral politics. Right from the start, he was banking on people’s sentiment to ensure his election. He got elected in 2002 on PDA ticket, a party ‘committed for the protection of Manipur integrity.’ In the subsequent election, he hopped to the Congress and got the ministerial berth. When he was dropped from a minister post in the then Congress ministry after the 2012 election, he started mobilising public sentiments by antagonising the Kuki-Zomi community. He succeeded yet again. He became the chief minister after 2017 election in Manipur. Since then, he implicitly declared his dislike for the Kuki community through his deeds/actions and sometimes words.
His policy has been to cast the Kukis in a very poor light and portray them as criminal community. In all these, he received supports from gullible people who are easily carried away by emotions and succumb to false information and propaganda. He declared the war on drugs aiming poppy cultivators. It must be very clear to all that neither all Kuki people are involved in poppy cultivation nor support it. When majority of the Kuki-Zomi people appreciated the steps taken by the government, he indulged in stereotyping the whole Kuki community as poppy planters. But on hindsight, it was the capitalists from bigger community who funded the poppy cultivation through impoverished tribals. The suspicion that these capitalists who funded the poppy cultivation have close link with people in power is more or less real. So, taken against the cultivators, why the capitalists who funded the poppy cultivation are spared?
N Biren Singh manufactures and spins lies after lies to keep his chair intact and save his face. His mastery was also in the art of telling lies and deceiving his bosses. He openly and shamelessly repeated lies after lies. He is into that still. The number of empty promises he made to the public can best be spelled out by legislators both from the hills and valley. His credo was to sustain Meitei hegemony over other communities by any means.
Biren Singh found a worthy partner in the person of titular king Leishemba Sanajaoba. One may recall the din surrounding Sanajaoba’s candidature for Rajya Sabha MP in 2020. Many organisations had objected to his candidature saying that he was symbolic of Manipur’s princely status and his election to the Rajya Sabha would mean otherwise. However, Biren’s desire to make him a partner in expanding Meitei hegemonic influence in hill areas outweighed other considerations. The Biren-Sanajaoba combo had executed a number of Meitei centric endeavours and open communal undertakings in the hills either to expand Meitei settlement or consolidate them particularly in Kuki-Zomi tribal dominated areas. They display mastery to accelerate the speed to turn good people against fellow citizens in a short span of time.
As a titular king, Sanajaoba was expected take custodian or guardian role and not to be biased in any dealings and have equal love and concern for all communities living in the state. But he was not. In his hatred for the Kuki-Zomi community and perhaps fear for the Nagas, he tries to get closer to the latter. This way, he and N. Biren Singh exhibited their hypocrisy pompously.
The last thing expected from this powerful combo was a bloodbath as witnessed now. Not even MLAs and high ranking bureaucrats are spared. They eventually become the merchants of death. The atrocities and then ethnic cleansing under the command of Biren-Sanajaoba through their militias – the Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol, will be embedded in history.
Many drug hauls have been reported in the State over the past six years. It was the small time transporters who got caught while the big shots evaded arrest. With full of malice and in his persistent attempt to depict the Kuki tribal community in bad light, he would post them in his facebook wall. As a CM, he has not reserved any respect for his office when it comes to hate campaign against the Kuki tribal. He would engage in responding comments (even school dropouts who can barely type) by people belonging to the Kuki tribal. He even arrested commentators who did not fall in his line. All this while, not a single drug case was handed over to impartial agency like the CBI. An MPS officer had to resign to protest the shabby drug case dealings by the government. It can be an indication that drug lords operating in the state are close to people in power. However, no one dares to dig deep for obvious reasons.
Also, to divert public attention on his incompetency like mis-governances particularly financial instability besieging the State, he manoeuvred to draw public attention towards petty issues such as planting saplings in areas inhabited by the tribals. Just two months after his second term as the chief minister, N. Biren Singh gave free hand to gun brandishing youth to plant trees in areas where the tribal live. When the tribal people protested the move saying that any activities to be taken out in their areas need their prior approval, things only took an ugly turn.
The Imphal-based Meitei media also showed all rudeness towards the Kuki-Zomi tribal. Right from the headlines to the editorials, the newspapers are filled with hate campaign against the Kukis as if what N. Biren Singh did against the Kuki tribal were alone newsworthy. The overdraft, misgovernances, nepotism, corruption etc in the government and incompetency of Biren were left for gossip topics. The angers and hatred only grew.
Biren’s audacity to bypass established rules and take law in his hand was never mentioned by any Meitei organisations as if they are blind to such acts. ‘It’s okay to let it happen if it is against the Kukis’ attitude among Meitei civil societies and their leaders were perceivable.
N Biren and Meiteis majority have an ill-conception towards the Kukis. Their thinking was oriented towards the Kukis as not legal citizens of Manipur and that they will loosely give ‘foreigner’ ‘illegal immigrants’ tag to the Kukis, which was far from the truth. The Meiteis are also very apprehensive of the population growth of the Kuki community. Manipur attained statehood in 1972. Meiteis, who form majority of the Manipur population, claim to have over 2000 years of fabricated history. In trying to impose their history to non-Meitei inhabitants of the State, they would give illegal immigrants tag to other communities who have no relations with them. They would even refuse to acknowledge the contributions/history of others. The Kukis fought the British for three years in 1917-19 during the famous Kuki rebellion. This event was well documented by the British writers. But Meiteis, out of jealousy perhaps, deny the occurrence of that event in Manipur history! Constant attempts have been made to brand the progenies of various important events in the history of Manipur as ‘foreigners.’ However, history cannot be easily distorted and distorted history indeed cannot last long.
The unthinking and pseudo-intellect Meiteis would also argue that the population growth of the Kukis is abnormally high. Although they claim that Manipur is inhabited by various communities, the egoistic and purist Meiteis would never get to know the people whom they are living with for centuries. They think that their worldviews would be shared by others and those who do not fall in their lines are outsiders. The Meiteis fear to have more than 2 children whereas a normal Kuki family has 8-10 members. The simple reason for population imbalance among the different communities of Manipur is due to their difference worldview and not necessarily due to influx of migrants. Kuki-Zomis are separated by three international boundaries namely India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. But they do not have the slightest motive for population invasion (as coined by Meiteis) to any of the place they live. Their (Kuki tribal) fear of fixing base year to determine citizens of Manipur is due to their deep mistrust on Meiteis. The apprehension that Meiteis manipulated anything they like stands out to be a truism. Most of the Meiteis who now inhabited Imphal have migrated from remote areas such as Moirang/Bishnupur, Thoubal/Kakching, Sekmai, etc. Likewise, migration of people from remote areas to bigger town is happening everywhere. It should also be noted that Kuki-Chin people are known as Chin in Burma, Mizo in Mizoram and Kuki in Bangladesh, Manipur, Assam and other parts of India. The nomenclature ‘Zomi’ is also popularly used in some parts of Manipur and Burma. However, they are collectively known as Zo people or Zo ethnic tribe. There was no national and international boundary in pre-British period.
In fact, demarcation of boundary by British colonialism divided their inhabited territories into three sovereign countries, as such, their village boundary become national and international boundary. Therefore, the issue of foreigners, exodus and immigrants are all hollow issues, created, propagated and reinforced by the uninformed N. Biren Singh and his puppet fascist associations, namely, Haomee Federation, Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol, COCOMI etc.
If we rewind our memory just a decade back, the ground situation was totally contrary to what has happened now. When the Manipur integrity was felt severely threatened by the Naga movement (Southern/Greater Nagaland, Alternative Arrangement, etc), the Meiteis strongly banked on the support of the Kuki tribal for the protection of its territorial integrity. The Kukis, without an iota of doubt, placed their trust on the Meiteis and rallied behind them for the integrity of Manipur. Now, with the gradual weakening of the Naga separatist movement, the Meiteis feel so secure that they invented/manufactured and spread propaganda to such an extent that the Kukis are the real threat to Manipur. They do believe in the propaganda, and decided to silence them and even started genocidal killings. So, this is the price they paid for their loyalty to the Meiteis and Manipur’s integrity. The narrative now is Meiteis and Nagas share common origin.
Biren and Meitei CSOs including Meitei media have to admit first that Manipur is a pluralistic state. Responsible organisations such as the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), has to balance their thinking first before jumping into conclusion regarding the mayhem in the state. It is very unfortunate that COCOMI claimed that the violence besieging the State is fallout of political conspiracy hatched by a group of non-indigenous folks to break the unity and integrity of Manipur.
The valley people and their frontal organisations including COCOMI have first divided the tribals (Chin-Kuki-Mizo groups and Nagas) and now schemed to disintegrate the Chin-Kuki-Mizo people. They may not achieve their plans and it will only prove counter-productive. The reason being, Chin-Kuki-Mizo people are all not fool but they all are quite aware of their future.
If the COCOMI and other concerned CSOs were serious about the development now in Manipur, why had they remained a silent spectator over the years when all these angers and hatred are building up? Why should they now feign ignorance of the sequence of happenings including hate speech against the Chin-Kuki-Mizo people which were gradually unfolding and building up in the past six years? In pointing accusing finger to defenceless tribal in the pogrom unleashed on them, valley CSOs are adding more salt to the wound.
It must be known that the tussle at the initial stage was between disgruntled tribal group and the government. But now it turns out to be a full scale war between two communities with no end in sight. One simple reason is that the Meitei CSOs acted as the mouthpiece of the incumbent state government who miserably failed its people. Maybe they wanted it to be this way. And, the water in the pot is splashed on the ground. The healing process seems to take much longer time than anticipated or it may be impossible like collecting the splashed water on the ground back to the pot.
The communal politics played by Meitei centric chief minister, who believe in ‘exclusivism,’ and their self-appointed spokesmen had done much harm to Manipur than others and it will take much more time to heal the wounds. CSO leaders who show much concern to the bloodshed in the state may now reorient their thoughts and pressurise N. Biren Singh to step down from his chair. He already has too much blood in his hands. The Chin-Kuki-Mizo people can no longer trust immature and draconian N. Biren Singh and there will never be solution to the present problem so long as immature and intolerant N. Biren Singh remains as Chief Minister of the state.
It is evident that the wrongs, harms and suffering done by N. Biren Singh against the Zo (Chin-Kuki-Mizo) ethnic group can no longer be reformed or redone; therefore, solution of the present ethnic crisis lies in total separation of the Zo people from Manipur and the Meiteis. The immaturity of N. Biren Singh was openly exposed because he could not control his Meitei chauvinist emotion when he was interviewed by Wasbir Hussain, Chief Editor of North East Live Channel in peaceful rally on 9th April by commenting those people who participated in the rally as KNA and ZRA. However, when he was asked whether all those fifty thousand people who participated in the rally were KNA and ZRA cadres but he was confused? It was indeed pitiful to watch the interview of such immature and impatient leader who exposed himself to the rightful media not like yellow journalistic media of Manipur valley which he remote-controls strictly.
One cannot attribute ‘political conspiracy at play’ alone for the separate administration demand when the dividing line is clearly drawn based on community and ethnicity. The partition is real. No one in Manipur ever dreamt that one day there will be exchange of people from one place to another. This happens during Biren and Sanajaoba’s time.
Lastly, one hard fact should be stated that ethnic cleansing and genocide of Jews by Hitler during World War II and ethnic cleansing by Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia after disintegration of Yugoslavia are now replicated with high degree by N. Biren Singh against the Zo (Chin-Kuki-Mizo) people in Manipur. So, the solution of the present ethnic crisis lies in separate administration for Chin-Kuki-Mizo people which should also be seriously analysed by the concerned authority of the Government of India.
(Views expressed are personal)
The Hills Journal
K. Salbung, Churachandpur
Manipur-795128
